h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We increased our range by combining cycling and walking.

I'm running out of different routes to walk locally, well perhaps you could walk them in a different way, like backwards, then forwards but block of one eye, then the next time block of another eye, then backwards again with one eye blocked again with the other eye blocked, you should perhaps see a lot of things you did not see before, by then you might be able to do it blindfold....

What a sad, locked down world, but I applaud you for getting out in the fresh air.

Certainly the circular routes are considerably different just going in the opposite direction!
At least the air round here is fresh, unless they've put fertilizer on the fields. We don't walk every day, but it does make such a difference even going out into the air to put the rubbish out etc.

At work, we have three connected ponds with small bridges over the streams connecting them. When I take my daily walks, rather than taking the circumferential route around all three ponds in big rectangle, like I see most folks do possibly making multiple laps, I take a convoluted path crisscrossing back and forth between the ponds and crossing the bridges. I get in more distance within the same area. Every other day I reverse direction to see the other side of the trees, as it were.

Well I'm quite happy with walking along the promenade, it's just that there's not enough shelters for when it suddenly rains. Wet benches are off-putting. I really miss the coffee break in the middle of my walks. However I can never be bored looking at the Solent and watching all the activity on the water.

We have made the effort to drive out to the forest once a week to do a "proper" walk, taking sandwiches and tea. We had thought that if we went mid-week it would be deserted but there were quite a few others out and about this week.

We have been having glorious sunshine though. The weather is like October. I've been saying for years that the calendar is fast by nearly a month.

So, for 1 day of Christmas mixing, we need 5 days of strict measures. Could be 3 weeks lockdown to allow 3 days of festivities. Personally, I would prefer less strict measures & only very limited mingling allowed at Christmas. But I do sympathise with those who have big, inter-generational, families.

There will be the usual 3 of us. Last year we had a curry at a local Indian restaurant. Not likely to happen this year. I just can't get into the mood this year.

I'm becoming more and more convinced the human race is too stupid to survive.

Damn! Don't like going from tier 1 to tier 2 especially as we are nowhere near the levels of Southampton or Portsmouth. Why have we been lumped in with the whole of Hampshire?

Try living in the centre of Kent and being lumped in with places on the other side of the North Downs! I'm pretty sure most people in my village hardly ever visit those places over the hills and far away. Certainly you can't get there by any form of public transport.

The best explanation I've heard is that it's to do with the load it would place on your local hospitals if cases rose. I might live in a village with no cases, but if anyone here needed admission, the big hospitals are in towns where they could become overwhelmed with patients.

Christmas for me will be with my younger daughter who also lives alone. We're forming a Christmas bauble.

Over the hills and far away is where my relatives live. I drove hundreds of miles just to be with them for the family gatherings. Now I'm too weary to do all that driving, so it's just as well that our governor doesn't want big gatherings. I called my brother and sister and wished them a happy Thanksgiving yesterday.

I'm glad that they are well.

I hope they can stay that way.

Well Christmas was always going to be a relative free time because my family is spread out all over the UK. We never visit each other at this time because no one has the space for a family get together unless hotels are involved. Too pricey at Christmas.

My Mum used to be keen that the family met sometime over the Christmas period, but really it's often not practical. As grandchildren grew up, often took Winter holidays, as well as the unpleasantness of travelling on cold, dark Winter days, much better to arrange a meet up some other time of year.
We prefer to stay home & relax. Just like we've been doing nearly all year...

That's music to my ears.

I really like the way I've arranged my place now.

Well all the way from Tier 1 to Tier 4 in a month.. Merry Christmas.

I still don't know anyone personally who admits to having the virus. There may be some who have it but don't know it.

I'm a "Don't Know" I had something nasty back at the end of Jan start of Feb 2020, which the time I assumed to be a nasty seasonal flu as Corona was only in the press as affecting China.
However there is now evidence that there were cases in the UK at that time and sadly one of the first UK deaths was quite local only a few weeks later.
Since there wasn't any testing at the time I'll never know.

Yeah, you can find out. Get an antibody test. That will show if you had it and developed any antibodies to it.